


Ben Evans Is Never Late

by squishyhobi



Category: The Lodge (UK TV)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 09:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14422662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squishyhobi/pseuds/squishyhobi
Summary: When Ben's late for work, Skye and Alex are both angered... Until they find out why the boy hasn't arrived. Alex helps Danielle cope with some bad news and shows her true caring side.





	Ben Evans Is Never Late

Skye looked at the reception desk where Alex was glaring at the clock on the wall, she then grunted and rested her elbows on the desk, catching eyes with the blonde.

“Ben’s late.”

“That’s not like him,” Skye replied quickly, “he’s usually here early.”

“Well he’s not,” Alex stood up straight again, crossing her arms, “he’s forty minutes late, he better get some kind of punishment for this, don’t let him go unpunished.”

“I won’t,” Skye raised her eyebrows to Alex, “I treat him just as I treat anyone else.”

“Even if you were once a deluded couple.”

“Alex,” Skye folded her arms and tilted her head, “that’s in the past. We’re both happy with our lives now.”

“Tell that to the cry who was crying for a week after she saw Ben and Danielle kiss.”

“I was crying because I almost lost the lodge!”

Alex hummed and tapped against the desk, “I’m meant to be watching Love, Simon on the hour, I’ve got twenty minutes to get there before the movie starts!”

Skye let out a sigh, “go, I’ll take over, I’ll call around to see if anyone else can help.”

“Thank you,” Alex jumped at the chance the leave her post at the front desk, she ran through to the staff room and Skye made her way around the back of the desk. It was hard without Noah and Kaylee around, they had quite a few very loyal workers – sometimes people liked to see the familiar faces featured on Live At The Lodge and My Amazing Life. The only people left were Skye, Alex, Ben and Danielle. Danielle didn’t even work there, and every now and then Josh would stop by but he also didn’t work there. Skye checked her phone, there was no messages from Ben, which just made it all much odder – had he been held up he would have texted, unless Danielle refused to let him text another girl. She came across as that type of person. The business was slow at the moment, Skye didn’t really need to be behind the desk but she thought she better be present whilst she could, just in case some major dilemma happened. 

In a few minutes, Alex was returning, pulling on her multicoloured jacket, “thank you so much Skye, I appreciate it.”

Alex went to leave, but paused when Danielle entered, her usually held high head was directed towards the floor and she barely looked like the kind of Danielle who’d want to be seen in public. She wasn’t wearing her pink leather jacket, nor her blue one, she was wearing Ben’s blue hoodie which barely coordinated with the rest of her outfit. Her hair was scruffily tied back into a bun. She didn’t seem like the same Danielle at all. 

“Am I having some strange dream?” Alex commented aloud, turning to Skye, “Danielle looks nothing like Danielle.”

Danielle looked up at this point, making it clear she wasn’t even wearing makeup, which Alex jokingly reacted to with a yelp, but Danielle’s forlorn expression made both Skye and Alex curious. 

“Are you alright?” Skye asked, leaving the desk. 

Danielle shook her head and wiped her eyes with the cuff of Ben’s hoodie, “I’m scared.”

“Scared? Of what?” Alex asked as they approached the girl, “where’s Ben?”

When Danielle heard the boy’s name, she fidgeted, crossing her arms and tightening them around herself, “he’s,” she paused, shuffling on the spot as she tried to speak, “he’s in hospital.”

“What?” Alex and Skye called out at the same time.

“What happened?” Skye questioned quickly.

“Did he fall whilst mountain climbing or something? Or biking?” Alex tried to guess, but Danielle shook her head.

“He uh…” Danielle began to fiddle with the necklace she was wearing, one Ben had recently bought her, “it’s complicated, and… It’s hard to,” she paused trying to steady her breathing, “hard to explain, and hard to hear.”

“Tell us,” Alex urged, her eyes widening.

“He just… I don’t know, things were getting hard for him, he suddenly got really bad… Emotionally. He tried so hard to stay happy and stuff but, he struggled. He tried to take his own life last night,” she spoke quietly, but Skye’s and Alex’s reactions were the opposite of quiet.

“WHAT?!” Skye shrieked.

“IS HE OKAY?” Alex rushed to ask.

Danielle slowly nodded, “he’s stable, but he’s not exactly okay…” Her hands moved down to fiddle with the zip, “I was staying with him last night, and things seemed fine, but then I woke up to hear his mother shouting and Ben wasn’t by my side. He was in the bathroom, and he had taken some… He had taken pills, overdosed. We got him to a hospital and… I’ve never been so scared before,” her lip began to quiver, “things could get worse again, he’s stable but things can change. I don’t want to lose him.”

“I can’t believe it,” Skye whispered. Both her and Alex had softened up, Alex dropped her bag to the floor and quickly moved to comfort Danielle.

“Are you okay? Should you really be here?”

“I just feel like I’m waiting to hear horrible news, being in the hospital, waiting for a good or bad outcome… It’s hard. I came here because… I just… I need people. I need friends.”

Alex looked to Skye and then to Danielle, “tell you what then, I’ll stay with you today.”

“Aren’t you going to watch Love, Simon?” Skye looked at the girl, wondering about the girls previous plans. 

“I can watch it some other time,” Alex replied quickly, “this is more important. Danielle needs a friend, and for this… I’ll happily be your friend,” she wrapped an arm around Danielle, “where do you want to go? The basement? The juice bar?”

“The boathouse,” Danielle replied quietly, “I want to go to the boathouse.”

“Perfect, let’s be on our way then,” Alex offered her a smile, “will you be joining us, Skye?”

Skye looked around, “you guys go, I’ll speak to my dad and see if I can figure something out and join you.”

Alex nodded, she broke away from Danielle to pick up her own bag, “come on,” she spoke in a caring tone, the most caring tone anybody had ever heard her use. They walked out of the lodge and started making their way towards the boathouse. Danielle fell silent, her emotions were clear on her face. It was also clear she was struggling not to cry, Alex didn’t want to pry, she wanted to try help the girl out and keep her happy.

“Do you want to see Love, Simon with me some day? I was planning to see it now but this is way more important, I can reschedule watching a film.”

“I shouldn’t have bothered you,” Danielle replied, “you should go see the movie.”

“No way, not when you’re in this state,” Alex placed her hand on Danielle’s back, “Skye and I are good people for you to have around. I lost my grandad, she lost her mother. We both understand the fears you’re having right now. We’ll both be here for you.”

“It’s just,” Danielle paused, looked up and breathing in deeply, “of all the people. I know that nobody would ever think that Ben was struggling like that. I knew he wasn’t one hundred percent happy, I knew he was keeping that part of him away from everyone. I didn’t realise how bad it was.”

“There was no way of you knowing. Sometimes the most cheerful and kind people are hurting the most.”

Danielle held tightly to the material of the hoodie, “I want him to be okay.”

“If he’s stable, I’m sure he’ll be conscious any time soon!” Alex grinned, “you’ll be back in his arms in no time.”

Danielle felt a small smile grow on her face, “I can’t wait for that,” she whispered, he happiness suddenly faded, “what if… What if I made it worse for him? What if he hates being with me? What if he just-”

“Danielle, calm down,” Alex stopped the girl and looked into her eyes, “Ben looks at you like… Like…” Alex thought for a moment before raising her eyebrows, “Ben looks at you like Noah looks at Kaylee, he’s all ‘lost puppy’ without you. Oh,” she began to chuckle, “like last Tuesday, he ran into the reception because he thought he heard your voice, and this happened multiple times.”

“He did?”

“Yeah! He has this little smile on his face whenever we mention your name, and when I talk to him about you two, he gets ridiculously smiley and overjoyed. I don’t want to force your relationship to jump ahead… But I think he’s in love with you.”

Danielle seemed breathless, “you do?”

“Yes!”

“I… I’m in love with him too.”

“You should tell him that when he wakes up.”

“If…”

“When,” Alex looked sternly at Danielle as she repeated the word, “when he wakes up. Because he will. Hearing you tell him that you love him, it might help bring a bit more light into his life. You know?”

“Yeah,” Danielle replied, “yeah, I understand.”

They approached the boathouse and Danielle placed her hand against one of the pillars where it opened up to the water, “is it sappy that I wanted to come here because I know Ben likes it here?”

“I think you’re permitted to be sappy,” Alex replied leaning back on the fencing, “what’s your favourite thing about Ben?”

“Physical or non-physical?”

“Have you got an answer for both?”

“Yes,” Danielle smiled proudly, “Physical, I like his eyes, I can get lost in them so easily, and they just seem to brighten when he smiles – his smile is a very close second. But non-physical, I love how he cares for everyone else before himself,” she paused, “I guess that’s what caused his feelings to get like this, huh? But it’s that caring personality that makes him so easy to love, he’s so sweet, wonderful. He knows what to do to make people smile, it’s… Amazing.”

Alex smiled at the girl, she leaned forward and playfully responses, “I personally like his bossy traits. He reminds me of me.”

Danielle let out a laugh, “oh when me and him are both in a bossy mood, it gets hectic.”

“I bet,” Alex nodded, “I’d love to see that conversation.”

“You wouldn’t, and it’s less of a conversation, more of a ‘who can complain for the longest’ I usually win.”

Alex nodded, “that seems right.”

“I don’t know what I would be like if he didn’t ask me out that day,” Danielle admitted, “I know I’d be hurt,” she began to fiddle with her hair, “but now I have him, I… I feel like I don’t deserve him, he’s so good and pure.”

Alex let out a small huff of laughter, she then sat down on the floor of the boathouse, “don’t tell Skye I said this,” she leaned towards Danielle slightly, even though she was still standing up, “but I think you and Ben belong together.”

“You do? Really?” Danielle’s face lit up.

“He makes you happy! I’ve literally never seen you smile as much as you do with Ben!”

Danielle ducked her head, she then kicked off her shoes and pulled up the bottoms of he jeans. She sat down like Alex, but she was facing the other way. Through the opening of the boathouse she stuck her feet into the water of the lake, Alex raised her eyebrows in shock.

“That’s not like you… At all.”

“Ben and I always do this,” Danielle replied, “it took him a while to get me to go along with it,” she kicked her feet slightly. She then closed her eyes and paused, “he’d wrap his arm around me and talk to me in his soft voice, he’d kiss my cheek, my forehead… Sometimes he sang quietly whilst I rested against him.”

“And he will do again,” Alex lightly nudged Danielle, “don’t lose hope.”

Danielle looked over to Alex, she tried to smile, “you should have seen him, Alex,” she whispered, her voice cracking, “in the bathroom, on the floor… It was so,” she closed her eyes again, “I felt as though I stopped breathing when I saw him. Before I knew it, I was sat in the waiting room with his parents, unable to think about anything else but how I saw him in the bathroom.”

Alex didn’t know what to say, she let the silence weigh over them both. Eventually she saw Skye approaching them. The blonde rushed to get to them, and when she reached them she sat down on the floor with them.

“Hey,” she shared a smile to the two girls, “you feeling any better?”

“A little bit,” Danielle replied, returning the smile.

“I’m surprisingly good at this,” Alex proudly stated.

“Do you want to do something? To take your mind off of things until you get news?”

Danielle nodded in agreement to Skye’s suggestion.

The girls ended up exploring the woods, they had all been there before, but this time Alex was having fun making up stories about the goblins in the woods. When they came across the cave that Danielle and Ben had fallen into, Alex teased Danielle slightly. Danielle fondly looked at the area of the cave.

“I knew I liked him before then, but when we were in the cave… I really felt… I felt so close to him.”

Danielle and Skye caught each other’s eyes, both of them noticing the tension as they recalled to how it used to be. Skye cleared her throat and then spoke, “you know, I actually… I’m glad you and Ben are together. You deserve to be happy.”

Danielle smiled, “thank you,” she twirled hair around her finger, “I think you deserve to be happy too, and there’ll be someone who’ll help you find your happiness at some point!”

“Hopefully,” Skye agreed happily with the girl. 

Danielle’s phone began to ring and she rushed to look at the caller ID, “it’s Natalie!”

“Ben’s mum,” Skye explained to Alex.

Danielle answered the call, “Natalie! Hi, hi, is everything okay? How is he?”

Skye and Alex stood in silence, trying to understand what was being said by watching Danielle’s expression. They could see the hope suddenly turn to panic.

“What? What? No!”

Alex and Skye both gasped they could see the tears in Danielle’s eyes, but Danielle silenced and soon began to smile.

“Oh my God,” she let out a weak laugh and began to smile, “thank you, thank you so much, I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

Danielle ended the call, she put the phone in her pocket and wiped her eyes, “he’s okay,” she whispered to Alex and Skye, “he… Well, he got worse suddenly and his heart stopped beating but then… Then they saved him, and he’s actually awake now.”

“He is?” Skye grinned, “oh thank God.”

“I really thought he was gone for a second there,” Alex clapped her hands together, she ran forward and wrapped her arms around Danielle, “let’s get going then.”

“I’ll get my dad to give you a lift,” Skye smiled.

“Thank you,” Danielle smiled widely at the pair as they started making their way back to the lodge. 

They were back quite soon and Skye quickly asked her dad to give Danielle a lift to the hospital, she had previously explained Ben’s situation to her so he was easily understanding. Alex and Skye waved Danielle goodbye as Ed drove away with her in the passenger seat.

Alex turned to Skye, a smile on her face, “she loves him, you know?”

“Yeah,” Skye nodded, keeping a smile on her face, “yeah. I’m actually… I’m happy that they’re happy together.”

~

When Danielle arrived at the hospital she rushed to get to Ben’s room, she was allowed in and grinned as she saw the boy sat up in bed talking to his parents and younger brother. She rushed over to his side and he quickly welcomed her into a hug. Ben’s parents looked at each other and then – after Natalie whispered a ‘we’ll leave you two alone’ – they ushered Ethan out of the room and shut the door so that Ben and Danielle were alone.

Danielle looked into the blue eyes that she loved so much, she placed her hand on his cheek and gave him a smile, “Ben,” she whispered, keeping a soft tone, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Ben nodded, pressing his face into Danielle’s hand, “I’m glad you’re still around, I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be around me.”

“Why would I want that?” Danielle let out a soft laugh, she leaned towards him and kissed him on the cheek. Ben didn’t answer, Danielle then paused as she kept the eye contact with Ben, “I love you.”

She could hear Ben’s breath hitch, he shocked expression soon changed into a bright smile, “you love me?”

“Yes,” Danielle nodded, “yes. I love you,” she repeated, keeping her smile, “I love you so much, Ben. So, so much.”

“Danielle,” Ben looked back into Danielle’s eyes, breathing steadily, “I love you too,” he pulled Danielle closer and placed a kiss against her lips, “I love you with all my heart.”

“I’m always going to be here for you, here with you,” she whispered, pressing her forehead against his, “I promise. I’ll always be around for you, always. I’ll help you through everything, I promise.”

Ben nodded, “I’m sorry for scaring you like this, I shouldn’t have-”

“Don’t,” Danielle sat on the edge of Ben’s bed, “don’t apologise Ben, don’t. I know that sometimes things can be too hard for people, we should focus on the fact that you’re here, well and alive.”

~

It was a few days after the incident when Skye found herself in a similar position, in the reception watching as Alex stared up at the clock. When the it got to the hour, Alex excitedly ran out from behind the desk and over to Skye, “it’s time!”

Skye smiled and ushered her through to the lounge room, the curtains were closed and many other people were gathered in the room, including Josh, Kaylee, Noah, and Sean. They had all returned just for this day, because it was special and they had to be there for it. Alex started to move slightly, trotting on the spot in excitement. Everybody fell silent and it wasn’t long until they could hear voices from outside the front of the lodge.

“I’m sure Skye will understand you not being able to return to work straight away,” it was Danielle.

“I don’t know,” the other voice replied, “they might… What if they think… I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry,” Danielle’s voice was calming, “they’ll all understand.”

The people in the lounge heard the front door open and the pair also went quiet.

“Where is everyone?” Ben’s voice asked, Danielle gave an ‘I don’t know hum’ before leading him towards the lounge. Once the pair were in view of the lounge, everybody shouted a loud ‘surprise!’ and Ben’s face lit up when he saw the sea of familiar faces. Danielle let out a small laugh, having been in on the surprise the whole time. 

“We missed you!” Skye called out as she rushed forward to hug Ben.

Ben smiled as he hugged the blonde back, and then he moved to hug Sean as he approached, “why did you guys do this?” He let out a laugh, “I don’t exactly deserve it.”

“Yes you do,” Danielle replied, she joined hands with Ben and gave him a smile, “Ben, you deserve the whole world.”

“Speaking of things you deserve!” Alex announced loudly, she held up a gift bag and passed it to Ben, “a little gift from me.”

Ben took the bag and gave a confused expression, “oh… Uh… Thanks?” He looked into the bag and then pulled out some tickets, “Love, Simon?” 

“Yes, my treat,” Alex grabbed one of the tickets, “I needed people to go with so I volunteered myself to third wheel with you and Danielle.”

“Wow,” Ben let out a laugh.

“I’m kidding,” Alex shook her head, “I won’t sit with you guys, I’ll let you get smoochy in the back.”

Sean had backed away but he now stepped forward with a wrapped present, poorly wrapped so Ben could tell it was definitely Sean who had wrapped it, “my best friend, I’m so glad you’re still here,” he whispered, “and I hope you enjoy the present.”

Ben quietly thanked Sean before unwrapping the present, as he pulled the paper away he saw that Sean had given him a framed photo of the pair of them, one of Ben’s favourite pictures with Sean, “thank you so much,” he grinned.

“That better not replace our picture,” Danielle joked as she rubbed her hand on Ben’s back.

“We don’t have a present to give you,” Noah gestured to himself, Kaylee, Josh, and Skye, “but we have got something to show you.”

They cleared the space, Kaylee grabbed her guitar as the others gathered around. Danielle left Ben’s side to join them, together they began an alternate version of Kaylee and Noah’s song ‘There For You’ directing the lyrics to Ben and making sure he knew how much they cared about him. For the chorus, Alex and Sean also joined in, as did some of the lodge guests who were eager to be involved in the surprise. 

When the song finished, the group all gathered for a hug, with Ben in the middle, “thank you so much,” Ben called out, smiling as they broke apart again, “you all… You mean so much to me,” he held Danielle’s hand and looked at his friends, “things won’t get better straight away,” he commented, knowing his friends were all aware of his situation, “but… Knowing I’ve got you all in my life, that might just… That might make things a little bit better for me. I know I had you all before, but I’ll try to keep this moment in my mind forever,” he let out a small laugh which was almost weak, “I love you all so much, thank you.”


End file.
